Mystery of the Anti

by Perry Rhodan

  "Attention, Ivan: I don't think your disintegrator will have much luck with that unknown screen of his. So concentrate on whatever cover he finds and destroy it so that we'll always have him in view."

  "Atlan: as soon as you see him, open fire and aim it so he'll always be knocked away from the direction of the space-jet. That way we can prevent his breakthrough. All set? OK. Ivan, start the action. You're close enough now."

  Rhodan's plan was quite clear. Probably after a few hours of being batted around by our beams like a ball he would be so weakened that he might surrender. The only trouble was, I didn't have hours of time at my disposal!

  But I was interrupted from falling prey to my emotions. The high priest had correctly surmised that his present position was going to become untenable for him. He suddenly appeared from hiding and began to sprint with giant leaps toward the space-jet, which was a scant 100 meters away. The negligible gravity of the moon of Gelal permitted one to broad jump with ease and yet there were drawbacks to this very advantage. After each jump the Anti had a hard time keeping on his feet and kept falling.

  Rhodan fired first. The searing bolt of energy caught the priest in the middle of a jump but because of the airlessness of our surroundings it all happened in silence. I could see the finger of destructive force hit his screen and then cascade away in a shower of coruscating fire. Nevertheless his body was violently knocked sideways and finally slammed against a rocky uprising with enormous force. Of course his screen served as a collision buffer but the shock of impact must have been transmitted to him.

  In a sudden transport of rage in which I poured out all of my helplessness and despair I took aim and opened a ravening energy fire which suddenly made the priest look like a statue bathed in lightning.

  He leaned back against the high rocky ridge, unable to move. The accurate and incessant bombardment of energy beams from our heavy impulse weapons literally 'nailed' him there under the high force of impact.

  I kept on firing until my gun flashed a red warning light. The pulse blaster was overheated.

  Rhodan was forced to make use of his hand beamer which of course did not have the energy output of his heavier weapon. I threw my big blaster into the black shadows close to my cover where it would radiate its heat more quickly and cool down.

  When we started to fire with our normal weapons, Kaata was able to free himself. Still staggering and falling to the ground, he drew behind the stone outcropping and disappeared from our view.

  Rhodan laughed. Kaata must have heard him since he probably had not shut off his radio.

  "Ivan, do you see him? He must be on your side!"

  "Right in my sights, sir."

  "OK, fire at will. Pulverize that outcropping."

  Since the fire from the tank cannon was invisible it was all the easier to see its effects. After an initial cracking and crumbling the solid rock formation suddenly dissolved into nothingness.

  Segno Kaata became visible again. He lay flat beside the small mound of dust which had been a granite wall moments before. But the disintegrator rays had not been able to destroy his screen.

  Rhodan immediately resumed firing as he shouted to us: "Don't let up! Keep him under fire!"

  Shortly after that we had an unexpected piece of luck. The high priest was again whirled away across the ground while his own shots went wild. I had again picked up the heavy blaster. The red light was out which meant the weapon was ready for use once more.

  I kept a steady beam on a round boulder which was perhaps two meters in diameter and which Segno was obviously trying to reach. Under my pinpointed fire the rock heated to incandescence and then exploded. Simultaneously something happened that I could only assume but could not see directly. In our headphones we heard a shrill cry of pain. Kaata grasped his upper right arm which appeared to be dangling uselessly at his side. I forgot to keep firing. I watched the priest excitedly just as he dove into a deep fissure in the ground.

  "What was that?" I asked tensely. "What happened to his arm? Did you see that? Did one of our shots get through..."

  "No!" replied Rhodan in a strange tone of voice. "No way! It happened when the boulder exploded. There were heavy fragments flying around him like flak."

  "Can he be injured by that?"

  Rhodan did not answer. He seemed to be pondering the subject. But suddenly we heard the high priest calling.

  "If you don't cease firing at once, Your Eminence, I'll destroy your activator. It's up to you!"

  Rhodan cut in on him. "Surrender it and we'll let you go!"

  Kaata used a degrading swear word which caused Rhodan to speak in more frigid tones.

  "You are dealing with me now, is that clear? I'll smoke you out, you can depend on it. This is my last offer: you will place the activator on a stone in plain sight and give yourself up. I'll guarantee your safety and I'll land you on any planet of your choice."

  "Without the brain treatment?"

  "Without it! Think it over. I'll stand on my word!"

  "You're not authorized to make that decision, Terranian!"

  "Yes he is!" I interjected swiftly. By now I did not care whether this man remained alive or not. I had to have the activator. I only had 39 minutes left.

  And from that point on the Anti knew that I did not possess a duplicate. Seconds later, Rhodan gave up trying to keep it a secret.

  "You are close to death," the high priest said to me. "I knew that you did not have a second device. So my information was valid. I demand full freedom and the right to participate in programming the robot Regent."

  "You're a little late with that idea," remarked Rhodan. "Without the activator, Atlan will die. If that happens because of you, Kaata, I'll come after you personally! You'll not get inside that ship. If Atlan is put out of action you will still have me and my mutants to face. We'll chase you all over this moon if we have to. I am familiar with the spacesuit you are wearing. It only gives you 10 hours of oxygen. Our Terranian suits have a superior regeneration system. We can breathe for 24 hours! What use is it to resist? What could you gain by Atlan's death? Use your reason! I'm offering you complete freedom—what more do you want? You're beaten, anyway."

  The Anti was silent for a few moments, during which we allowed our weapons to cool oft. Otherwise we would not have been able to use them.

  Then came Kaata's answer: "I can't rely either on your promise or on that of a dying man. I prefer to gamble on what's real. My prospects of conquering you are better than anything you can guarantee me. I have no faith in the pledges of a barbarian or in the promises of an Imperator who has gained power through deception. You will have to die, Atlan!"

  His burst of scornful laughter made me go out of my mind. Rhodan crawled across to me and pushed me back under cover. A shot from Kaata's weapon caused the rocks close above me to glow white.

  The time left to me was only 26 minutes. By Rhodan's horrified expression I knew that my face was changing. Probably the skin was becoming loose and wrinkled. I felt a leaden weight in my limbs. The final realization came to me of what I actually was: after 10,000 years of synthetic immortality I was just an ancient used-up old man with no natural claim to life.

  It was then that I surrendered to fate and could finally smile. "Is it so bad, after all?" I asked softly in English.

  Rhodan said nothing. He grasped my left arm swiftly and looked at the timer. Then he spoke. "Still 25 minutes! OK, I'm going to try something. No, don't contradict me now!" he snapped at me in louder tones. "Here, you take your weapon and mine, too. I want you to do exactly what I tell you."

  I nodded resignedly. A strange peace came over me. I was ready to surrender. I probably didn't even have the strength left to continue the chase. Without Rhodan's help I'd have been lost long before this. But the game stretched out a little longer because the Terranian would not give up!

  I listened to his instructions, which twanged in the phones with overdriven emphasis. "Ivan, listen to me! I'm making a run for the ship. We're going
to plaster the Anti with fire. I want you to destroy his present position. Keep moving in on him and do all you can to make him lose his head. Atlan will keep that devil under continuous fire. When one beamer is overheated he can use the other. I don't want the fire coverage to let up for a second! Did you get all that?"

  When Goratschin confirmed I said to him listlessly: "I guess you're going to use the heavier ship's armament, aren't you? Good. That will probably break down his defense screen. But what good will that do? The activator will be consumed in the atomic fire along with the Anti."

  • • •

  He signaled me to get ready. Seconds later the tank cannon began to fire. I waited until the high priest was visible behind his disintegrating cover and then I began to shoot at him. The repeated beams again hurled him away across the rough ground. Without his impact screening he would easily have been broken and crushed. Whenever he found new coverage the mutant would proceed to disintegrate it.

  Rhodan had been biding his time. When Segno Kaata fell under a particularly heavy hail of fire, he sprinted forward. He avoided making large jumps which took more time gaining him height than distance. Instead he utilized the light gravity by making long gliding steps. The technique made him practically fly over the sun-scorched terrain. He often landed on all fours but always managed to keep his highly trained body under control. Before I realized it he had disappeared under the hull of the disc-shaped machine. The lower hatch swung open.

  From then on I could not make out what Rhodan was doing. I didn't see him come out of the space-jet yet it was amazing that he did not put it into operation or attempt to use its heavy gun. The ship did not move.

  The Anti had found a good place to take cover. He was lying in a trough that was completely surrounded by rock ridges which even the disintegrator could not destroy easily. Also my two heavy weapons had been overheated again and I had to hold my fire.

  A glance at my timer showed I had just eight minutes left. After that my deterioration would set in with appalling swiftness. I would not die immediately but my body would wither like a flower suddenly exposed to the heat of an oven.

  No word from Rhodan. There were seven minutes left. My eyes seemed to be glued to the relentlessly flashing numbers of my timepiece.

  I was halfway into some unreality of dreaming when I suddenly heard Rhodan's voice in my helmet phones. "Watch out—don't shoot! I'm right behind the Anti."

  I raised up swiftly from my prone position. Rhodan appeared just behind the rugged wall that surrounded the criminal. I could see him quite clearly but I could not make out the nature of the strange device he was carrying. It looked like a curved staff which he swiftly bent into a semicircular arc. Something flashed away from him, reflecting the sunlight. It darted down into the declivity and then I heard a horrible cry.

  It was an anguished moan from the Anti!

  Again Rhodan made the same odd movements and once more the high priest cried out. But this time the sound was more throttled, as though he were gurgling instead of articulating.

  After Rhodan's third enactment of an operation I still could not comprehend, the screams below ended in a deep groan.

  Then there was silence.

  Rhodan stood there motionlessly on the rock wall. I got up and staggered toward him. I realized that the Anti was dead. And if so, his special defense screen would have collapsed automatically.

  Goratschin raced forward in the tank, coming to a stop close to the declivity. Rhodan had disappeared into it but when he reappeared he came toward me in great leaps. In his right hand was my activator.

  When he reached me he threw me almost violently to the ground and pressed the device tightly against my chest.

  • • •

  I must have been unconscious for some time. When I came to my senses I could sense the resuscitating stream of pulses from my activator. I could think clearly again. Strength flowed into me.

  As my eyes wandered, I saw behind the transparent cockpit bubble of the nearby tank, Goratschin waved to me. Both his heads were laughing. Rhodan waited until I could sit up by myself. I felt the activator in my hand and suddenly pressed it fervently against my body.

  Rhodan was the first to speak. "By the time I got that thing to you, you had only one minute left. Is it in time to restart your cell regeneration?"

  "How do I look? Wrinkled?"

  "Still to some extent but the effects are fading away."

  With, a deep sigh of relief I sank back again. Lying there flat on the ground I looked up into the glittering void which began directly at the surface of this airless moon.

  "How did you manage to kill him?" I asked in a low voice.

  "It was a try that could just as easily have failed. I got the idea when the Anti was wounded by the flying rock fragments. The stone flak went right through his screen! I knew that energy weapons were not the answer, so it was the same for any magnetically susceptible form of energy or material. This brought to mind the sports equipment we carry on board. You know that every spaceship carries athletic and sports equipment for maintaining physical fitness."

  I nodded but said nothing. However, I turned my head to look at what he was referring to. Not far away I could see a long sports bow lying in the sand. It was made of highly elastic synthetic fiber material. The quiver with its long arrows still hung over Rhodan's shoulders. When I looked at his face, he smiled.

  "I'm a very good marksman with a bow, didn't you know? The arrow shafts are made of non-magnetic synthetics and the sharp heads are also made of a nonmagnetic metal alloy. I came over the Anti's back wall and before he knew what was happening I shot the first arrow into him. It went through his screen with no effort at all. It took three arrows. That was it!"

  "That was it," Rhodan had said simply. I savored the words wonderingly. How had this amazing man ever gotten the idea of firing at one of the best and most impenetrable energy screens in the galaxy with just a bow and arrow? Such a conclusion could only have been reached by a man whose forefathers had been hacking at each other with swords and battleaxes only a few hundred years before.

  I could hardly comprehend it but the result had proved the validity of Rhodan's strategy.

  His voice jolted me out of my reveries. I already felt fresh and reinvigorated. The activator was stimulating every last one of my bodily cells.

  Rhodan was looking off toward the declivity where a dead man was lying. In the high priest's body were three arrows which had actually been designed for target practice.

  "You know," said Rhodan thoughtfully, "the Anti shouldn't have kept calling me a barbarian. Believe it or not—that's what gave me the idea to revert to bow and arrow."

  He helped me up from the ground. Goratschin came closer with the tank. Rhodan went over and picked up the bow. As he came back toward me he was using it as a walking stick.

  Strange—what ideas these little barbarians of Terra came up with!

  THE MYSTERY OF THE ANTI

  Copyright © Ace Books 1976

  Ace Publishing Corporation

  All Rights Reserved

  THE SHIP OF THINGS TO COME

  ALL ARKON would now begin to search for Thomas Cardif. Perry Rhodan's rebellious son had finally slipped from his hands and was marching blindly to his doom. Rhodan was thinking of what Atlan had told him concerning Thomas and the laws of Arkon. Even the Imperator had to abide by the law and his hands would be tied if an Arkon court should sentence Cardif to death.

  Pucky was needed desperately!

  In every cabin and hold of the Lorch-Arto the intercom speakers rang out with an urgent call for the mouse-beaver. Pucky had been on board but at present was nowhere to be found on the freighter. Nor was he hiding in the air-regenerator unit.

  Find Pucky! This was Rhodan's order.

  But if Pucky did not wish to be found he simply screened off his thoughts and then all the mutants including the mental tracker Lloyd could only reach out into Emptiness. Such is the desperate situation faced in the next
adventure—

  POWER'S PRICE

  by Kurt Brand